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Mars Express 3D Image Released
zoney_ie writes "As reported in BBC News Online, ESA (European Space Agency) have released an image of the surface of Mars, captured in 3D and full colour. Europe's Mars Express orbiter has been taking pictures of the Martian surface at down to 10m resolution. The mission will result in Mars being more carefully mapped than Earth has been to date! Full size image available on ESA's Mars Express Website."
Are any of those publicly availible (declassified)?
Here
Dephine URL
Seabed maps are not nearly as acurate as land maps.
Earth is mapped, near real time, to about 1 foot with military satellites.
It's only ONE aspect of the Mars Express mission.
On the website we can read:
The Mars Express Orbiter will:
image the entire surface at high resolution (10 m/pixel) and selected areas at super resolution (2 m/pixel)
produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 m resolution
map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation
determine the structure of the sub-surface to a depth of a few kilometres
determine the effect of the atmosphere on the surface
determine the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind
Beagle2 failed but it was only 20% of the mission.
Iraq: war to save the U
At 10m resolution, one or two pixels in the images will have some light from Spirit, yes. =)
But I think the joining forces around Mars link from the main page is very cool.
From the article:
Agustin Chicarro, ESA's Project Scientist for Mars Express, said: "This is the first time that two space agencies are co-operating on another planet with two spacecraft. It is remarkable to know that one is in orbit and one is on the surface, both taking measurements to complement each other."
The thing in the box has no place in the language-game at all; not even as a something; for the box might even be empty.
My apologies, the image available was taken at 12m resolution according to the article.
The details on the High-res Stereoscopic Camera HRSC on ESA's website had the 10m number:
"The HRSC will image the entire planet in full colour, 3D and with a resolution of about 10 metres. Selected areas will be imaged at 2-metre resolution. One of the camera's greatest strengths will be the unprecedented pointing accuracy achieved by combining images at the two different resolutions. Another will be the 3D imaging which will reveal the topography of Mars in full colour."
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Express has mapped the entire planet?
Not the entire planet. It's a fairly narrow strip of the planet. The main mapping mission hasn't begun yet. For now they are just calibrating the science instruments. I guess this image is part of that test.
Looks great! They will be mapping more than just Mars aswell, Phobos will also be globally mapped for the first time ever.
BTW, anyone know why there hasn't been any new Spirt images in the last 3 or 4 days?
From the FAQ: "You may freely use the images you find on our site, as long as it is not for commercial use. You may not modify the images. If you intend to use any of the images on a website, please acknowledge that it originates from ESA. For more information, see our Terms and conditions of use."
However, in those terms and conditions, it goes on to say the following:
"The contents of the ESA Web Portal are intended for the personal and non-commercial use of its users. ESA grants permission to users to visit the site, and to download and copy information, images, documents and materials from the website for users' personal non-commercial use. ESA does not grant the right to resell or redistribute any information, documents, images or material from its website or to compile or create derivative works from material on its website. Use of material on the website is subject to the terms and conditions outlined below.
All material published on the ESA Web Portal is protected by copyright and owned or controlled by ESA or the party credited as the provider of the content, software or other material.
Users may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display or in any way exploit any of the content, software, material or services, in whole or in part, without obtaining prior written authorisation. In order to obtain authorisation to display or use any content of the ESA Web Portal, please make a request for authorization by clicking on 'Contact us'."
Damnations.
Turkeyphant
I think the point being missed here is that very few mappings have been done of Earth using *the same single instrument*.
A very good illustration of how important this became available when the Hiparcos and Tycho star-catalogs were produced by the Hiparcos satellite (also ESA).
When the resulting catalog were compared to ground based astrometric catalogs, every single one of them showed systematic errors of varying magnitude.
Even with the best instruments and the most careful technicians and scientists, systematic errors between instruments, methods and setups exist. When it comes to consistency, a single instrument in a single setup beats anything else.
I don't doubt that military "assets" exist which can image the birds in my garden playing soccer with breadcrumbs but they have never made a global map (even ignoring the two thirds which is water) with the same single instrument.
SAREX came close, but no cigar: the polar caps were missing.
I think ESAs claim stands: They're doing it better than we ever bothered to do it here.
Poul-Henning
Poul-Henning Kamp -- FreeBSD since before it was called that...
There will be another slowdown in MER-A activities as MER-B arrives on Wednesday. They were talking about finding a good patch of soil to test during that time.